amarhealth.com

Health Desk-- 11 February, 2018: Alabama has recently become the latest state to file a case accusing Oxy Contin maker Purdue Pharma LP of fueling the opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing prescription painkillers to generate billions of dollars in sales.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall alleged in a lawsuit filed in a federal court that Purdue misrepresented the risks and benefits of opioids, enabling the widespread prescribing of the drugs for chronic pain conditions.

The lawsuit said that as Purdue reaped significant profits, Alabama suffered significant costs as a result of a public health crisis that had led to hundreds of deaths in the state each year due to opioid overdoses.

Marshall was among the attorneys general who last Wednesday attended the first court-ordered settlement conference overseen US District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, reports Reuters.

Marshall said he now expects his lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Alabama, will be transferred to Ohio to be overseen by Polster.